1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a tray apparatus for a refrigerator, which is designed to occupy a predetermined space only when articles are to be placed thereon, so that an interior space of the refrigerator can be efficiently utilized.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a general refrigerator. Referring to FIG. 1, a freezing chamber 3 and a refrigerating chamber 5, which serve as a storage space for keeping or storing articles therein, are formed within a refrigerator body 1. The freezing chamber 3 and the refrigerating chamber 5 are divided by a barrier 7. Thus, the interior temperatures thereof are set to be different from each other so that the articles can be stored individually according to respective features of the articles.
A plurality of shelves 8 are installed at a predetermined vertical interval within the freezing chamber 3 and the refrigerating chamber 5 so that the storage space can be efficiently utilized. The freezing chamber 3 and the refrigerating chamber 5 are shielded from the outside and opened selectively by the doors 9, respectively. Inner faces of the doors 9 are provided with a plurality of baskets 11 for keeping the articles therein. Reference numeral 5′ is a vegetable container which is partitioned separately at a lower portion of the refrigerating chamber 5 so that vegetable or fruit is stored therein.
That is, the articles are stored in the freezing chamber 3 and the refrigerating chamber 5 of the refrigerator. More specifically, the articles are stored on the floor, the shelves 8 or in the baskets 11 of the freezing and refrigerating chambers 3 and 5, according to respective kinds and sizes of the articles.
However, there are the following problems in the aforementioned prior art.
An area in the freezing and refrigerating chambers 3 and 5, on which the articles can be placed, is generally limited. Thus, in order to store or keep a lot of articles in the chambers, the articles may be placed one above another. However, this results in the following inconvenience. That is, if any lower one of the stacked articles is to be taken out from the chamber, all the articles placed above the specific article should be displaced.
In particular, an article with a large bottom area, e.g. a pizza box or a flat article, occupies a large bottom area of the storage space, while a space above the article is left to be unused. Thus, there is another problem in that space efficiency is lowered. In such a case, other articles may be put on the top of the flat article such as the pizza box. However, it is still very inconvenient for a user to take out the pizza box or the like in a stacked state as mentioned above.
Furthermore, spaces in the vicinity of a ceiling surface of the storage space (for example, ceilings of the freezing and refrigerating chambers 3 and 5, bottom surfaces of the shelves 8, and the like) are not substantially often used for storing the articles. This is because the height of the article is generally lower than a distance between the adjacent shelves 8 or between one of the shelves 8 and the ceiling surface.